Man, 33, who posed as schoolboy, arrested for indecent behavior

Everytime you think you've seen the bounds of creepiness here, someone comes along and surpasses it.

"Indecent behavior" -- is this how our fearless media reports a cut-and-dried case of statutory rape?

Indecent behavior/Sex offense against minors

so ummm, how could she not tell the dude was way over 16yrs old???

he's 33, told the girl he was sixteen, and SHE BELIEVED HIM.

She's 16, he told his family she was 26, and THEY BELIEVED HIM.

There's a whole lot of dysfunctionality going on here. This girl is gonna have a messed up life after this incident, for sure.

Beelzebub: "Indecent behavior" -- is this how our fearless media reports a cut-and-dried case of statutory rape?

Maybe they are telling it the way it happened? I know that when people say 16 year old teenage girl and 33 year old man that people just love to imagine sex, but your imagination does constitute "cut and dried" evidence that it did.

It might be that its the only thing they can legitimately charge him with at this time. Maybe they just took baths together or something. Or, maybe they will charge him other things down the road, like kidnapping. I am as wary of the media as anyone, but you can't blame the media for what the authorities charged him with.

It's easy to confuse these Japanese "men" for being younger than they are. Most of the male celebs look like pubescent boys - short, skinny, and way too worried about their hair. My teddy bear has more machismo than these J-dudes. Wait! I mean, my niece's teddy bear.

so ummm, how could she not tell the dude was way over 16yrs old???

Maybe it was his huge collection of Manga,love for Disney products and no ambitions for the future that did it.

See 16 and 33 is not so different in Japan

This is so old. How come the arrest is only happening now?

Strange girl and a strange man with a strange mother. Makes me feel almost normal.

This story boggles my mind.

This one blew my mind

Where is YuriOtani to defend this young Japanese man's actions. Since we as foreigners have no right to judge this man and girl by our own cultural values.

This is just so bizzare. The funny thing is only after two months does the BROTHER tell the girl to go home - what planet do these ppl live on? The mom thought this was all A-Ok? Why was a 33yr old man living with his mom in the first place?

bamboohat: This girl is gonna have a messed up life after this incident, for sure.

You mean more messed up than she would have been before the incident? Does not sound like she the sharpest knife in the drawer.

You know, I am not reading anything about broken bones, black eyes or forced prostitutions. Considering the girl is this gullible, we might think she got off lucky. She might not next time, and I bet there will be a next time.

Even if she had stayed in school, I don't think we could have had high hopes for her.

The guy just should have married her. It would have been legal.

Gee...where to start?

hey this is nothing new in japan. i have heard this kind of stuff millions of times ever since i was a kid in this country. its a culture here - a perfectly sick one at that.

look all aound, and you will find young men and salarymen at any age are reading manga or a stupid newspaper with pics of exposing females. or if not they are so engrossed with a cellphone stuff or an nintendo ds game. there is no wonder this sort of news happens here and there. and i know they cant stop any of them, saying thats their cultural identity as japanese. so this will happen again and again.

Just proves how smart people are. When I tell them I'm 29, and actually 39, and they say "Really..." Always thought they were joking with me. Now I understand, they are clueless.

I'm not quite sure if this is a tragic story or a humorous story.

If he first approached her in 2008, then doesn't that mean that she was actually only 14 or 15 when their "relationship" first got underway? Anyway, a disgraceful way for an adult male to behave.

shows how completely alienated people here are. How could shw believe his story, his family believe she was a co-worker, they never talked etc?

Could we have more details on the 'indecent behavior'?

catiano: there is no wonder this sort of news happens here and there. and i know they cant stop any of them, saying thats their cultural identity as japanese. so this will happen again and again.

Well I am not sure exactly what aspect of this you are referring to. A 30 something individual posing as a high school student is a rarity anywhere, and it has happened elsewhere.

If its men lying to and tricking women, this is also a worldwide phenomenon and nobody condones it.

If its over twenty or thirty year olds having a relationship with a teen, I am afraid the Japanese can't quite claim that as unique culture either. It will happen again and again, in every country. Many places its legal so long as there is a marriage, in other words, so long as there is some reasonable proof no one is being tricked or lied to. Not unique to Japan.

No, no, no, it is much too indecent...this behavior..

" Sato told police that the girl looked like she’d be easy to fool. "

I think thats a correct observation... and how about his mom who thought she was 26 year old OL?

Weird story.

And the prize for best weirdest goes to...

Hundreds more like her. Have you ever listened to the crap they talk on trains?

A house full of idiots!

Flabbergasted. So many things wrong here. A 33-year-old man who lives at home with his mother and dresses up like a high school student to try to have a 'relationship' with a 16-year-old girl!!!

The girl had run away from home and was staying with this guy. Sounds like kidnapping to me. Maybe he didn't use physical force but he preyed on her weakness and used psychological manipulation to keep her from leaving. What a total sicko!

Doesn't seem like the girl was very stable either. Warning bells didn't go off when this guy approached her so she was obviously lacking good judgment. She probably came from a troubled home life; maybe even was abused. If she was desperate enough to move in with a total stranger, she must be running from something pretty bad. Were the parents looking for her?

And what about the sicko family of the man. He told them she was a coworker but he is not even employed! At least some sense finally kicked in with the brother. I hope this girl isn't permanently screwed up. The charge of indecent behavior is a total joke! The cops better get all the facts on this one and put this guy away for a long time.

Look, this girl may have been developmentally disabled in the literal sense. It says "Sato told police that the girl looked like she’d be easy to fool." So he deliberately picked out the easiest girl to fool out of all the school girls, which certainly could mean he chose someone with a fairly low IQ.

Not saying she's not "dumb", but past a certain point it's kind of beating a dead horse to call a mentally challenged person dumb.

I'm sorry to say that this story is truly hilarious!

When will all unemployed people get employed again??? Such people are bored and they have to do something. Accused is dumb and stupid, and need a good lecture in prison for a while. Hope he will get a judge that will screw his brains out for few years. 'Sick, sick unemployed moster.

BTW, men in their 30s passing themselves off as mid-teens show up in the newspaper in the US periodically too. They find someone to fool in every country, especially people who are literally mentally challenged.

This story ties in well with the current comment thread about why groping is so common in Japan. It's a culture of sexual deviates.

Sato told police that the girl looked like she’d be easy to fool.

Not sure whether to laugh at this or just shake my head.

dolphingirl: Flabbergasted. So many things wrong here. A 33-year-old man who lives at home with his mother

Dolphingirl, this has been the norm for centuries all over the world. Western affluence and dare I say invasions of more spacious lands and slaughter of the natives has allowed the modern western trend of "moving out" in the college years. You might find not too far back that there was a large farm family in your own family tree. In Japan, housing is outrageously expensive and its packed. And they were prevented from the land grabbing of resource rich countries a time back.

The girl had run away from home and was staying with this guy. Sounds like kidnapping to me.

Did she run away from home to be with the guy or was she kidnapped by him? Your two sentences don't get along well.

Warning bells didn't go off when this guy approached her so she was obviously lacking good judgment.

It is quite possible warning bells went off. But he dressed as a student and claimed he went to the same school year previous. On top of that he was not violent. How was she supposed to react when he approached? Run headlong into traffic? Scream "rape"? Draw a gun?

You talk like he abducted her right there and then. Lets be calm but cautious when strangers talk to us, shall we. Usually they only want directions.

The things we do for love〜♪

I guess she was an unemployed coworker. Did he wear his HS uniform around the house? Did she? What kind of excuse could you give to your Mama on that one?

In all of this time the girl was never reported to the police as missing? Do you really believe this story, that all of the characters were so stupid that they would believe what the other was saying?

"BTW, men in their 30s passing themselves off as mid-teens show up in the newspaper in the US periodically too."

Do they live with their mothers????

Are the guy and gal both blondes?

16? Isn't that fair game??

unemployed coworker.

Huh, what?? Don't those terms cancel each other out?

16? Isn't that fair game??

What now minors are compared to "game"; like deer are "game" for hunters in deers season?!!

Believe it varies by prefecture; however child protection laws set the age at 18 -unless you got parental permission and were allowed to marry.

too many adult parasites living at home

Talk about all in the family!

Believe or not believe...

Actually reading this again it is over the top crazy. The weirdest thing is the mother and brother believing the 16 yr old girl was 26. It is one thing thinking people look younger but how many 16 yr olds look 26?

michaelqtodd, we don't know what anyone believed except the girl. The article says the mother and brother were "told". It does not say "believed". Sometimes we don't question other people's BS because we find it inconvenient to do so.

That said, why is it that you seem to think all 16 year old girls look the same? Some teen girls do look like they are in their 20s. Its one reason why we put ages on ID. Because you can't tell just by looking! There are often underage teen girls on TV here who could pass for mid-twenties, but then Japanese girls don't usually pork out at twenty so that dead giveaway is not present.

Just like Romeo and Juliet!

Well, we got our titillation for the day. Yokotta, ne.

A 33 year-old male who never became a man.

I feel nothing for him.

"What now minors are compared to "game"; like deer are "game" for hunters in deers season?!!

Believe it varies by prefecture; however child protection laws set the age at 18 -unless you got parental permission and were allowed to marry."

Fair game, as in allowed to be amorously pursued with a view to courtship, not hunted like an animal, obviously.

As a British citizen, I legally and morally consider 16 to be an acceptable age for sexual relations, so for a man to be charged for something like this when the girl is 16 seems wrong to me.

Had he kidnapped the girl, then yeah, prosecute, but if she went of her own free will, I see know problem. The age gap is a bit of an issue, and does seem to point at the fact that the guy may be a little on the immature / odd side, but from the perspective of this situation being a crime, I think that is overkill.

As an American citizen, 16 year-olds are minors under the law. You're not legally having "relations" with a 16-year-old minor without the express consent of the parents... and then it's only happening after marriage.

I work in a high school and can attest that there are high school girls who could pass for being in their 20's. It's not the norm, but they do exist.

8.Although the age of sexual consent in Japan is 13 years of age, prefecture law usually overrides federal law, raising the age up to 18

Legal age of consent in many States and around the world is 16.

Whatever they use over there to stay looking young... they'd make a fortune off of it!

Or they could use some prescription eyeglasses...

Seriously, a 33 year old teenager?

[Sato told police that the girl looked like she’d be easy to fool. ] ---- Well that describes most of the population. Stupidity here is considered a virtue.

Yeah, Mom. She is 26, she only comes back here every day wearing a high school uniform because she is a singer in AKB48...

Oh, in THAT case... Carry on!

This should be a movie.

I'm sorry my dears, but: LOL. I must be desensitized. First of all, a 33yo posing as 16. Second - the girl buys it? Yes, the police said she looked like she'd be easy to fool ... and then there's his family. This is just all kinds of crazy. You can't make up this kind of crazy, someone has to actually go out and do it.

The big question remains: How did the police find out?

Of course, if the girl was quoted as saying that those were the best two months of her life, the press would not tell us that would they? These stories always want a clear victim and a clear bad guy, and they will twist and contort any which way to get it. An example:

Sato had her stay at his home

"Had" her stay? Not "let" her stay?

My problem with this guy is that he lied and tricked and maybe even brainwashed this girl and allowed her to drop out of school and that's it. I have no reason to harbor any more problems until I hear directly from the girl how she felt about all this. But after several weeks of walk home dates and then voluntarily staying at his place for two months, I am inclined to think she might have liked the arrangement until the brother told her to get lost.

I am also inclined to believe she knew he was older but decided to over-look it for the benefits of doing so. It could go a lot of directions, but most everyone assuming the worst is getting stale.

"Maybe they just took baths together"

Err... Yeah. That's it- he picked her because she was easy too fool... into taking a bath with him!

Step away from the bong dude.

I am LOL while reading the article...I am ROTFL when I got to the posts...